In the book "They Fought for the Motherland" it mentions "one disabled tank" left behind at the Winter Palace to "defend" the Provisional Government while the remaining armored cars fled during the October/November 1917 Revolution. From a book on Soviet Armor by Steve Zagoda he mentions the Russians called half tracks as half tanks or Russian type tanks. Could this possibly be the one and only Allis-Chalmers half track? Or possibly some other vehicle or did the book get it wrong? There is a picture in the book during this period with a Mgebrov-Renault, Fiat, Austin and Garford Armored cars in it. Thanks in advance.

The silent 1927 movie October the Ten Days that shook the World is on youtube. It has a number of film clips of WW I era armored cars and tanks. Note there is a joke about this movie that more people were hurt in filming it than in the real October/November 1917 revolution!

The Allis-Chalmers B6 was marketed unsuccessfully in the US in 1915, it was too expensive to compete with other tractors. 10 were sold to Russia in 1916.

M. Kolomiets in a 1997 M-Hobby article says there were two Allis-Chalmers B6s converted by the Putilov plant.

The Allis-Chalmers wasn't the only half-track armoured vehicle built in Russia - in 1919 two Lombard-Bullock tractors were converted in Novorossiysk (on the Black Sea)

to support the White Forces during the Russian Civil War. These were captured by the Bolsheviks in 1920.

I think there's enough here for a Landships II article on the armoured half-track Russian vehicles.

Regards,

Charlie

-- Edited by CharlieC on Monday 18th of April 2016 01:33:32 AM

-- Edited by CharlieC on Monday 18th of April 2016 01:39:21 AM

Second picture is NO Allis-Chalmers. It is Lombard Auto Tractor-truck (no Bullock-Lombard - Lombard!), armoured by Sudostal work 1919 - in the service of White army. My friend Maxim Kolomiets know now - it was only one armoured Allis-Chalmers.